A Rocky Road Ahead
by Animangod
Summary: A porn with lots of plot story ... Where Kurogane and Fai eventually fall in love and there's tentacles.
1. Chapter 1

Kurogane rarely visited the Fluorite Stones. A store full of enchanted stones. From different quartz to mica and aquamarine to fluorite and amethyst to lapis lazuli to kyanite to larimar. The owner had all sorts of stones available for sale and a smile as bright as the lighting in there. On the counter as some paper weight was a fairy stone - yes that's what it was called and no it was not for sale. The rest were in shapes ranging from carved animals to pendants to perfectly round balls.

"Good evening," he smiled that bright smile.

Kurogane grunted.

"Looking for anything special?"

"I'll know it if I find it," Kurogane grunted. He didn't like pushy salespeople - he always ended up getting something useless.

Kurogane slowly ran the tips of his fingers over the rocks, feeling their different energies.

The owner tipped his head as the man in his store wasn't looking at all at them. How unusual. So he walked over and asked, "would you like something to drink?"

Kurogane looked up at the man, a name tag saying 'Fai Fluorite' before shaking his head, "no thanks. You make it taste weird."

For a moment, mismatched blue and amber eyes looked surprised before feigning a polite smile. "I see.. Most wouldn't notice that subtlety."

Kurogane glared pointedly at him, and the owner quickly waved his hands dismissively.

"Don't worry, it was nothing bad," he waved it off and when the glare had failed to let up, "seriously, just some energy work."

"Hmnp." Kurogane quit glaring and went back to rummaging his fingers over the stones.

"So...what is it you're looking for?" Fai asked.

With a sigh, he supposed he could tell the guy. Not like it would sound any weirder than energy work would. "The right aura…"

"Aura? You can see those?"

"I spose…" He could, but he had trained to sense them around him even if he could not see.

"Hyuu~ that is so cool," Fai said with a voiced whistle.

Kurogane raised a brow at that but went back to feeling the stones. Eventually he found a pendant piece that had a nice aura and when he gently rolled it over, it was also within the budget he thought to spend.

"I'm not sure you want that one…" the blond piped up

"Why not?" Kurogane asked looking up at him.

"Well you don't look like you're trying to talk to spirits."

"You're right - I drink them instead," Kurogane retorted.

Fai got a quick laugh in on that one. "Other kind. Anyway… if you do like it's aura, the aquamarine over there might be a better fit for you than the celestite you're looking at."

Kurogane went to go look at the indicated rock selection and felt the different aquamarine samples and while Fai was right - most did have a pleasant aura - it was a lot more than he wanted to spend.

"This is a bit more than I have handy," Kurogane murmured.

"Tell you what… I'll charge you for the celestite and you bring me back a box of sweets from Duklyon Bakery… they always sell out before I can get to them… and then we'll call it even. Deal?"

If that's what it took to get a good aura stone from this place… "Sure."

Fai's smile brightened and he practically flung himself at Kurogane, "Yay! Duklyon Sweets for me!"

Kurogane initially flinched and doubled checked he hadn't damaged any of the stones before looking at their owner.

"How do you know you like em if you aren't up in time to get some?" Kurogane asked curious.

"Oh…there's this boy who works there and he wanted a special item of mine so I had him drop me off goodies from his work after his shift. They were so delicious, but I haven't seen him since so I haven't had anymore after he paid off his item."

"Ah."

"So, yes a full box of their cute bite size eclairs. Or one of their full size cakes, and ice cream to go with it."

"Eclairs or cake, got it," Kurogane murmured.

"That's cake and ice cream. I can't have a party of one on just cake, now can I?"

"Dunno," Kurogane shrugged.

"Why don't you know?"

"I just.. don't," Kurogane said and left it at that. It was hard to explain. Saying he could see auras got him less haranguing and 'testing to see if it's true' than saying he didn't like sweets, he hated going to any parties, he couldn't drink milk, or he had a very high alcohol tolerance.


	2. Chapter 2

The door chimed and mismatched amber and blue eyes politely smiled to see the person, "Welcome."

"Hm." Kurogane walked over but noticed some things were different about this guy than the guy who told him to get him sweets to pay for the aquamarine. But he looked a lot alike. A brother maybe?

"These are for Fai,"

"Hyuu~" the brother imitated his brother. "How sweet of you~"

"Not really. It's what he asked for to make up the difference…"

"You mean, you don't think I'm Fai?"

"You don't even look like him," Kurogane said flatly.

Eyes widened and the brother cleared his throat before talking in his own voice, "well now that we've settled that...I don't have to pretend in front of you like I do with everyone else."

"Why bother?"

"Because only Fai owns this store… I only babysit it when he says he needs to do an errand."

"Ah."

The door bell chimed and the brother smiled a little more sincerely so Kurogane turned around to see Fai there with bag of food.

"Yuui~ I bought you a lunch too. .. Ah, Aura Man, you're back~"

"Fai, how many times do I need to tell you selling your wares for food is no way to run your business-" The brother - Yuui - lightly scolded Fai.

"Yes, yes… but it was only a few times…" Fai dismissed as he came in and plopped down on the desk. He pulled out a chef salad and handed it to Yuui. "For my darling baby brother~"

"I'm not that much younger than you, Brother.

"Yes, well when I was your age, I was walking in that door to see my brother and Aura Man in my shop."

Kurogane barely had time to process what was said before Fai was turning his attention to him. "So Aura Man...what goodies did you bring me?"

"The eclairs…called em yesterday so they'd have a better chance of being prepared and not being the one that took em all."

"Aww~ how thoughtful of you~" Fai cooed. "Would you like one?"

"No … just the aquamarine."

"I bet you already ate some Duklyon Sweets," Fai pouted momentarily before opening up his box of sweets and stuffing one of them in his mouth and humming as he ate it. Kurogane didn't bother to correct him. He then went behind where Yuui was and pulled out the paper receipt with the stone Kurogane had picked out.

Yuui slowly moved out from the chair and took his salad, going to the back room to eat it. On his way out, he told his twin to 'behave himself'.

Fai laughed at that before smiling at Kurogane, "so… this is yours now."

Kurogane took the stone and carefully pocketed it, leaving his hand in his pocket.

"I look forward to seeing what your aura seeing skills pick out next time," Fai said with a bright smile.

"We'll see," Kurogane murmured.


	3. Chapter 3

Yuui was walking home, having gone a new route just for the exercise when he stopped in his tracks. Casually meditating was the man that had recently purchased the aquamarine. And he was surrounded by wild animals. Hawks and sparrows and doves stood on tree branches as stray cats and dogs and rabbits had found comfort in climbing in his lap or laying in the grass near him and the family of ducks had waddled from a nearby pond to take shelter under the tree and relax into the side of his leg as though he was some fairy tale bard.

Yuui watched for a moment as like that, the animals were in a relaxed state around him and slowly approached.

"Good morning," Yuui spoke.

Kurogane opened his eyes, surprised by the interruption and accidentally sent the animals into 'flight' mode, and they all scattered, with the only one that stuck around was a bunny that decided the safe place to run was right inside Kurogane's shirt.

He looked over at the blond. "Can I help you?"

"Sorry to bother you, I'll just be on my way," Yuui said apologetically.

"Wait.." Kurogane said with a quiet huff. He stood up as he used one arm to support the rabbit hiding in his shirt, and walked closer. "Now, you wanted to say something?"

"It doesn't seem important now but I was just wondering how you got all those animals to behave so well for you,"

"They don't," Kurogane said flatly.

Yuui looked at him somewhere between surprised and confused.

"...if you really wanna know, buy my bunny buddy breakfast and I'll explain."

….

"So you can't even talk to them?" Yuui asked over his cup of coffee.

"I can the same way you do and almost everyone else does. But no … they don't hold conversations with me."

"Ah," Yuui hummed as he took a sip of his black coffee. "You'd never guess by how they react around you."

Kurogane snorted softly, "yeah well… it's basically all in the projected aura. If they have enough of the right aura, I can gently alter their mood."

"Is it similar to what Brother does?"

"In a way, but still different. After all, his medium of choice is rocks, something I can only work with a few of them."

"So you can't work with stones?"

"Most have the wrong aura and have too little water to work with. Opal I can usually use - I already made a stone dragon out of the opals I bought."

"What about the aquamarine?"

"It's gonna be a ninja and ride on the opal dragon's back, if I get my way," Kurogane commented as he slipped the bunny some lettuce from off his plate.

"Well, I'd love to see a picture when you're finished," Yuui softly smiled.

"Sure... should I make a photocopy for the shop as well?"

"I'm sure Brother would love that."

"I'm sure… so, what is it you do?" Kurogane asked curiously. "I know you sometimes babysit your brother's shop but what is it you normally do?"

"Me? Goodness… I ... I work as a nurse," Yuui said.

"Ah… the one with all the bedroom manners…" Kurogane commented, "for a doctor's office or one of those hospital places?"

"The local clinic."

Kurogane softly grunted at that as he fed the rabbit some more greens. "Do you enjoy it?"

"Hm?"

"Working at the clinic - does it make you happy?"

"I like to know I'm helping someone feel better," Yuui said with a small smile.

"That's good of ya," Kurogane murmured.

Yuui was quiet, wondering if he was going to ask the question he so often received. And when it seemed he had forgotten to, Yuui slowly took a sip of his coffee. "Yknow.. most would ask me when I plan to be a doctor."

Kurogane looked at him, and shrugged, "why would I? If yer happy where you're at, and doing what you're doing, why change yourself to fit someone else's mold of what you should be?"

Yuui nearly choked on his coffee, having not expected that at all.

"... You're really different aren't you?" Yuui said after a bit.

"Ah?" Kurogane inquired as he took a bite himself.

"That advice isn't very common," Yuui commented.

"Because common sense is in short supply," Kurogane replied. "Not everyone remembers to use what's between their ears."

Yuui softly chuckled at that, and hid the smile forming, "no I don't suppose they do."

"And even some who gots a good one still have areas where they forget to bring their brain with them and speak out of their ass instead."

Yuui couldn't help the surprise on his face at such blunt words. "You certainly don't mince your words."

"Don't see a point. If I wanted to beat around the bush, I'd turn into a rabbit."

Yuui let out an amused breath, "I'm sure your buddy there would like the extra company."

"Are you kidding? She already thinks we're related or something."

"Oh - does she?" Yuui softly teased.

"I mean for a wild bunny she acts a lot like I'm her best friend. Or something. When she gets scared she wants to hide in my clothes rather than running away."

"Maybe you should just take her home with you?"

"Apartment doesn't allow pets."

"Oh I see."

"..Do you want to care for her?"

"Me?" Yuui asked surprised by the offer.

"Yeah… You don't have to but if you do, I can help you out. If you want."

"I...well… does she have a name..?"

"Mm… it's Mokona."


	4. Chapter 4

"I can't believe you Brother… bringing home a wild rabbit."

"You should have seen how well behaved she was at the diner."

"You ever took her to a diner?"

"Technically, it was Aura Man … you should have seen him though. He had all these wild animals just cuddling next to him. It was such a sweet scene to stumble upon."

"Hyuu~ sounds like I missed something spectacular~"

"I'm not sure I'd go that far, Brother," Yuui sighed softly. "Anyway… he should be coming over with some stuff for Mokona."

"He's not allowed to have her himself?"

"Not unless he moves…"

Fai shifted his voice to mimic his brother. "Maybe he should move in with me."

Yuui sputtered at that, before reprimanding him, "Fai..!"

Fai laughed softly back to his light airy laugh. "I'm teasing, I'm teasing… but wouldn't it be easier to raise the bunny together if he didn't live in such an animal negative space?"

Yuui had to give him credit for having a point but still. "Then what's to stop him from moving in with you if that's the case. You two are also alike."

"Because …" And here Fai paused to sniffle fake tears, "his stone hard heart didn't ask me to look after her for him."

"Probably worried you'd feed her weird stuff… "

"Moi?"

"Yes you Brother… he told me about the drinks you gave him."

"He's the only one who has said anything, Brother. The only one. Nobody else has ever said anything about my energy water tasting weird."

"Maybe you should see why for yourself…" Yuui suggested.

"That's a great idea. Any ideas on how to lure him into coming by?"

"Well he mentioned something about altering the stones he bought -"

"He did what now?"

"The opals… he said he turned them into a dragon … I asked for a picture when he's done and he already had the disposition to think you'd want a copy of the picture as well."

Yuui left off the part where he mentioned if he gets his way because that could easily change between now and the final project.

"Hwoo~ I definitely wanna see what he's done with those purchases if he can change their appearance."

"Well I better hang up… that looks like him now…"

"He's at your place?! Like right now?!"

"He said he'd help me with the rabbit's care ...alright Brother, I'll call you later."

"Okay, buh bye, Brother. Call me soon," Fai said and blew a kiss over the phone.

"Sure. Until then, Brother." Yuui hung up and went to answer the door.

"Ah, glad you could find the place just fine," Yuui smiled politely at Kurogane.

Kurogane nodded briefly, "you gave decent instructions."

"Please, come on in," Yuui invited.

"Thanks for inviting me," Kurogane murmured.

"Of course. It was no trouble at all. Mokona has just been eager to see you since she heard you were on your way."


	5. Chapter 5

Authour's note: Language near the end.

The bell dinged inside the Fluorite Stones shop and Fai smiled brightly as his new customer. "Welcome, miss. Is there anything special you're looking for?"

"Well… I don't know… he likes old things… like fossils… do you have anything like that…?" She asked politely.

"I'm sure we do." Fai got up from his desk to help her look for the fossils when he noticed someone else enter. Recognizing the face, he smiled at him, "welcome back. Go ahead and look."

Kurogane lightly grunted as he looked at the different stones while Fai helped the other person out, careful not to disturb what was underneath his arm as he did so.

Eventually, they found her a sample of amber that showed signs of plant life inside the fossilized resin to gift her male friend. Once she was happy and left, Fai waved at her before really addressing Kurogane.

"So, what brings you in today?" Fai asked.

"Yuui said you'd like something so it's finally finished. A friend of mine helped prepare em."

"Hyuu~ let's see," Fai said happily.

Kurogane slowly handed over one of the cardboard paper wrapped framed photos to Fai. "This one is for your shop, if you want."

Fai moved away from the stones to unwrap the artwork. It was striking what had become of the stones. The volatile tintenbar opal had become eyes and koroit opal the scaling beneath the dragon. Moss opal made teeth and claws. Curvy horns were made of the black opal and Brazilian and light opal made most of the rest of the body. He could see just a hint of the white fire opal and matrix opal he had previously sold him making the belly of this jeweled beast. But what he thought was even more impressive is it looked like the dragon was simply born that way.

"Hyooo~ this is really impressive," Fai said, with his voiced whistle.

"So you like it?"

"I do. And the jar with the dice falling out inside the cave was a nice touch."

"Thanks. It was my friend's idea." She had the setting available from her photography business, but the jar of dice was his from playing DnD.

"She has good taste."

"I'll let her know.."

"Well now...as lovely as this, I'm sure it isn't free."

"I mean you could use it as local advertisement, but no - this was meant as just a gift," Kurogane shrugged.

"Well, it's very nice. But you know~~" Fai said, elongating the end of his sentence before pausing. "I can't really advertise a business if it has no business cards."

"Ah...well I have several for hers?"

"None of your own?" Fai asked curiously.

"I'm more of a handyman… The only regular work I'll get is from a couple companies that'll hire me on for a project."

"Oh, I see.. well think about having one? It'll be easier to sell your handy services that way," Fai said casually. "In the meantime, I'll take this and those cards you have of your friend who helped you make this."

"Ah. Alright." Kurogane gently shifted the one for Yuui to his other arm and then dug into his pocket, pulling out a small stack of business cards for the photography business.

"Piffle Pictures, huh? Sounds like a fabulous place. Ah, and what a cute bear design," Fai cooed.

"It's her logo - kinda like her version of Find Miyuki, expect it's a teddy bear head."

"What a cute logo…" Fai hummed, and went about looking for the teddy bear head in his print and was quiet as he scanned it, looking for the sneaky anomaly, before making an aha noise when he found it layered in the background. "How sneaky."

"Well, I better get this other one to your brother…" Kurogane lightly murmured.

Fai looked back at Kurogane. "Before you go, can I get your number? In case I have any work I'd like help with?"

"I spose that would be alright…" Kurogane moved the wrapped print again as he headed to Fai's counter and grabbed one of his business cards and a pen and flipped it over. He then wrote down his number as well as Kurogane in quotation marks beneath it before putting the pen away and handing the card to Fai.

"Just make sure to use that name. If you use my last name you'll sound like you work for a bank. Or some rando off the street."

"Wouldn't want that now would we… I mean, you're a repeat customer here and everything. Wouldn't want to sound like someone you couldn't trust."

"Right.. anyway I'll come look for more stones again when I can. Right now it's just a hobby, not anything I really wanna make money selling em."

"I see… Well if you do change your mind, I'd like to be your first customer."

Kurogane looked at him surprised, "wait… you're telling me you want me to buy stones from you so you can buy them back?"

"Well they don't have to leave the store unless that's easier for you. And of course I'd pay you for your time and all. But just look what you did with the opals you bought simply for a hobby. So I'd like my own Kurogane handiwork - maybe I can find a nice big stone with a good aura for you so it'll stand out in the store... I can rejuvenate them but I can't mold them so seamlessly like you did."

"Just don't make it too big… you won't be able to fit one of those selenites from Naica in your place. It'd squash the whole area flat as though it were a giant rolling pin."

"Maybe it just didn't have enough hugs in its life," Fai hummed.

Kurogane snorted with amusement. "As much as I'd like to see em in person, I can imagine why they haven't had enough hugs."

"Oh and why is that?"

"Cuz they too hot, hot damn, make a dragon wanna retire man."

Fai chuckled at that, "speaking of dragons, I should get this one on the wall somewhere. Where do you think would look good, Kurogane?"

"... Behind you would make it stand out the most and be the safest but then you would hardly see it, so perhaps on the wall opposite the door so he can look at all the other stones about as though he's guarding his hoard from the competition."

"Good ideas." Fai caught that Kurogane referred to the dragon as a he and was curious about that. "So it's a boy dragon?"

"Ah.. his name is Ginryuu and he likes to kill krakens."

"He likes to what?" Fai asked surprised.

"Kill krakens… anyway I better get this one to Yuui, so I'll see you again," Kurogane said before he headed towards the door.

"Wait- how can you just say something like that and not explain it?" Fai asked following Kurogane to the door.

"Maybe another time."

"When another time?"

"Maybe if yer ever invited to my place, maybe then. Can't promise nothing though cuz I have to share the space with a couple of fucking lesbians."

"You have something against lesbians?" Fai asked.

"Not at all - except almost every night they're fucking each other.. and some nights I have to sleep in the hallway cuz they're fucking each other in the living room and I'm not allowed in the apartment when they are. Like can you at least wait until I get back and into my room to fuck like rabbits?"

Fai laughed as he turned a little pink,"so that's what you meant."

"Yeah.. I mean they're great drinking companions and all, but sometimes they get so lost in the other person they forget everything else."

Several miles away, Souma sneezed over her lunch.

"Catching a cold?" Yuzuriha asked concerned.

"Probably nothing - just my roommate talking about me again," Souma assured her.


	6. Chapter 6

"Hello, this is Fai from Fluorite Stones. I was wondering if you're free this weekend, Kurogane."

"Ah. What do you need help with?"

"Painting and cabinets … I have a back room I wanted to spruce up but the last time someone trusted me with a hammer, an engine got busted," Fai said a bit light heartedly.

Kurogane wasn't sure he wanted to know how Fai managed that feat, but either way he thought not to trust Fai with his tools.

"How early can you be here on Saturday?"

Kurogane hardly had to think about that. "Seven."

"In the evening?" Fai asked.

"No, morning."

"Oh that is way too early.. how about nine instead?"

"Sure." He was half tempted to have said In the evening in the same questioning tone.

"Great~ then I'll see you here at 9am."

"Hn. See you then."

When the hour arrived, Kurogane had already done his daily routine and had relaxed for a while before getting his supplies together and heading over to Fai's shop.

"Good morning~" Fai greeted.

"Morning. So, where's this room?"

"This way." Fai led the way to a back room where he had boxes filled with materials for curio style cabinetry in the middle of the room, as well as buckets of paint, a soft neutral color that was just enough not white to give it some character. Painting supplies had also been gathered so there was very little he needed to provide besides his skills and time in regards to the painting. As far as the cabinets went, it was a good thing he brought his own tools.

It didn't take long to know exactly where he wanted the furniture and agree on a price. Afterwards, Kurogane got right to work, spreading out the drop cloth and placing the painter's tape along the room's trimming and outlets. He gently scrubbed the walls, getting them prepared to be coated with the fresh paint.

Fai had gotten a zero VOC paint, which was as close to being nontoxic as one could buy. Since the paint had a water base, once the walls were ready, it took him more time to let the paint dry than to put it on the walls.

He waited until the paint had set before he got to work, removing the tape and putting together the curio cabinets. There were all the physical parts he needed and he pulled out a couple tools to put them together. As he finished putting the frame together on the last one, Fai peeked his head in to see if Kurogane needed anything.

"Hyuu~ this room already looks a whole lot better," Fai commented.

Kurogane turned his head towards the door, "hey."

"Just came by to see if you needed anything," Fai hummed.

Kurogane shrugged, "Eventually gonna need to know where you want the wrapping materials to go."

"Right, right.. I'll go grab some garbage bags to stick it in and then it'll be easier to transport."

Kurogane made a quiet grunt at that and returned to setting up the curio cabinets, anchoring each of them so the cabinets wouldn't wiggle easily and damage itself or the rocks that would be displayed later.

"Do you like rock jokes?" Fai asked as he returned.

"They fluorite over my head," Kurogane said casually.

Fai blinked at that, caught briefly by surprise at how casually Kurogane just said a pun, and with his store's name no less, before he softly laughed. "Gneiss. My sediments exactly."

Kurogane made a noise as if stifling a chuckle, as he continued to anchor the cabinets.

Fai watched for a bit, as there was a sort of effortless ease Kurogane had with doing the work, before heading to the front, leaving the garbage bags behind.

Once Kurogane was finished setting up the braces, he carefully slid the tempered glass panels inside, placing them into position before gently shutting the doors. When all the physical work was done, he picked up, stuffing the plastic bags with the recyclables and trash, cleaning up the room before he stepped out of the room.

Fai smiled, "thank you for your help in there."

"You have any problems with it, lemme know and I'll come back and fix em."

"I appreciate that… although if the quality of your dragon is anything to go by, I doubt I'll be phoning you for problems with your work."

It seemed the compliment lightly flustered him. "... still…"

"Mm, well...I suppose that was my big project. I could probably find smaller jobs, but as for another big job like that, it'll be a while," Fai said as he wrote out a check.

"That's fine," Kurogane assured.

"Ah, have you been to the gem and mineral show?"

"Once."

"Did you like it?"

"There was a lot of nice looking stuff. Didn't care for half the stuff I wasn't allowed to touch."

"I see...well if you ever plan on going back, the one in November should have a lot of variety and better prices."

"November huh? Long as there ain't no emergency, should give me plenty a time to put some funds aside," he murmured.

Fai smiled more at that. "Well if you do go, I'll look forward to seeing you there."

"Well, it's still a way away, but we'll see."


End file.
